One man offers his opinions on everything of the geekosphere, and whatever else in pop culture that crosses into its realm. He also does what he can to inject some of himself back into the world, which have giveth so much.

...here I sit on a plane, heading back home from crossing off one of those truly American life experiences...Vegas. It's been a wild week. Normally when I go on vacation, I'm content to just sit back and relax the time away. Vegas had to be different...especially considering one was popping their Vegas cherry.So...come along will you?

Luxor

Our first night in town, I was pretty tired from the flight, so I wasn't very trigger happy at the Rio where we saw Penn & Teller. The second night though, when we went to the Luxor for the Blue Man Group, I was on the ball.

Luxor

The interior of the Luxor was crazy by the way!

But if Luxor was crazy, the Blue Man Group was even crazier. This was no surprise...I saw them years ago in Chicago on a high school band trip. I guess I had just forgotten how far these guys go.

It's kind of hard to see what's going on ^here^ because the end of this show turned into a straight up rave. I was honestly kind of worried that all the antics, the pulsing lights, and the barrage of streamers was going to give my dad a seizure or something, but he loved the experience too.

The Blue Man Group...still one hell of an experience.

Here's some more of the Luxor's crazy awesome architecture.

So, my mom tells me that there's more to Vegas than just Vegas. What? What more is there than booze, babes, and the boisterous loss of money?

Oh...I guess the Hoover Dam is close.

That day was hot, and there was a lot of walking, but it was really cool to see this structure close up, and to finally grasp the scale of it.

The next day was a night on the town. Time to finally get around to the true spirit of Vegas, losing money.

Bellagio

We ended up gambling at the Bellagio that night. And, while my mom planned things out a little better than me, and broke even, I ended up down about $40. Ugh. That's ok, I'll get it back later in the week.

There's something else in the area that, like the Hoover Dam, you just can't get that sense of awe and vastness of scale unless you visit it in person. The Grand Canyon was also on our Vegas list, and we got to see it in true style.

This day started with a limo ride. Wish we could have had this one night to just cruise the strip and draw in some hate. It gets better though.

That picture doesn't do enough justice to the situation of me sitting in a helicopter right here. A fricken helicopter!

Hey, I've seen ^this^ before!

After flying in we got set down on part of an Indian reservation within the canyon, and got an opportunity for lunch and photo ops. After that, back to the air for the trip back over the canyon, a pass over the strip, and a return to terra firma.

We decided to hit up Planet Hollywood that night for a little bit more gambling and to try Gordon Ramsay's burger place.

I really wanted to try craps while I was out there, but the rules sound so confusing, and just watching the action for a while provided no clarification for me on how the whole thing is supposed to work. So I decided that I'd just stick to slots and blackjack.

I gotta say, Brits can do a damn fine burger.

A helicopter ride is a surprising assault on all your senses. We all felt pretty tired the next day, so we took it relatively easy the next day until going to dinner, and then seeing Criss Angel: Mindfreak. That man...I don't want to say he is without talent, because he is a fucking crazy illusionist, but Jesus is he high on his own ego. I guess he can back up his own attitude, but he comes off really pretentious. Man is a master of his, don't get me wrong...he just kind of rubs you in a real odd way.The food that night was great though. Tried some sushi at a place called Rice, and actually won some money on the slots...it would prove to be the only time that would happen over the course of the week.

On the next to last day of our trip, we decided to hit up Fremont Street...Old Vegas. This used to be the Las Vegas strip back decades ago. Now...it's something else altogether. Something crazy.

Ha...the D lol. I am 5 years old, for reals.

We ended up stopping here at Binion's here for a while to drop some more dime into the slots. More money swirling in the drain.

Let's play some "Where's Waldo" in the above pic to find one of the reasons why Fremont Street is so crazy. It shouldn't take you too long.

Yea, Fremont street is really something else. What started out as the original Las Vegas strip now has a counter culture all its own. It was a fun journey.

That same night we were able to knock out another one of the staple Vegas experiences. The fountain show outside the Bellagio. Yea, we've already been to the Bellagio, but we missed the water show the first time, and didn't know that it actually ran every 15 minutes. Finally made it.

You've probably seen this show a dozen times on the webz, but this is the only version you'll watch that has all that siren fanfare at the conclusion. Yea, that's pretty special.

Our last night in Vegas, we went up into Stratosphere, the huge town that from the top, it looked like we were almost as high as we were when we went up the the helicopter. My ears popped going up the elevator. Even better, there was alcohol at the top!

All good things come to an end though, and now I'm back at home. I honestly didn't expect to have as much fun as I did. I'm glad I made the effort to get out and try to hit all the sites.